KEY POINTS:
- UN climate change report finds impacts are worse than previously estimated.
- The IPCC report warns there is a 'rapidly closing time window' to act.
- But experts also say humanity 'has the means' to tackle the issue.
The impacts of climate change are bigger and deeper than first projected but humanity "has the means to tackle" the issue, has found.
The Intergovernmental Panel on (IPCC) is urging speedy changes, warning "there is a rapidly closing time window ... to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all".
Mark Howden, vice chair of the IPCC working group on impacts and adaptation, said the report .
“The good news is there is lots of action already underway and lots of opportunities for action. We know what needs to be done, and we have the technology," he said.
“The choices we take now will have consequences in coming decades and potentially for thousands of years.”
What has the IPCC report found?
That the effects of climate change are bigger than first thought.
"Climate change impacts are larger and worse than estimated in previous assessments," it said.
"Human-caused climate change has led to widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, ice-covered areas and land, including more frequent and intense extreme events."
A child born today is likely to face three to four times as many extreme weather events over their lifetime than their grandparents.
Net emissions from all major sectors continue to rise, with energy, industry, transport and building accounting for 79 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.
Individuals from a "high socio-economic status" contribute disproportionately to climate change and have the highest potential for slashing emissions, it found.
Almost all scenarios foresee a global temperature increase of 1.5C during the 2030s.
The Paris Climate agreement aimed to keep temperature rises under 2C by the end of the century, but the report found only "deep, rapid and sustained" emissions reduction could now see that target reached.
A child born today is likely to experience three to four times as many extreme weather events as their grandparents. Source: SBS News / SBS
Net carbon emissions between 2010 and 2019 account for 80 per cent of the remaining carbon budget for a 1.5C rise.
Malte Meinshausen, a University of Melbourne climate science professor, said the window for action was now extremely small.
"This decade is really the last decade, and until 2030, is the last time we know that we have a chance to keep global warming to 1.5 degree temperatures," she said.
So what can be done about the climate crisis?
Act quickly to save costs down the line.
"Urgent, rapid and far-reaching transitions across all sectors and systems are critical to achieve ambitious mitigation and adaptation outcomes," the report said.
"Strengthening climate change mitigation action now would bring benefits from avoiding damages and reduced adaptation costs despite requiring up-front investment."
The report says human has the means to respond to the threat.
While there was some evidence humans are adapting to changes brought on by global warming, Mr Howden said they were typically "fragmented and small in scale".
The report found universal healthcare was a "key adaptation pathway" in the sector. That's because, as climate change worsens, so too will its knock-on health effects.
"Generally speaking, [in] populations that are healthy, that have equitable systems ... people are more empowered to take decisions that actually enable them to cope with change," Mr Howden said.
Is it too late to take action on climate change?
Mr Howden insists there are things that can be done immediately.
"We do actually have a lot of the solutions, both in terms of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions or in adapting to climate change," he said.
"We're just not necessarily implementing them at the scale at the pace needed to actually deal with climate change, because climate change is global and it's happening faster than we projected. We really do need to step up our actions."
The report says that must include "urgent, rapid and far-reaching transitions" across all sectors.
"Many feasible, effective and low-cost options exist in the near-term, some with immediate positive impacts," it said.
And Australia was in the enviable position of having both the wealth and landmass to make that shift, Mr Howden said.
"We're better off than many developing countries as well as some developed countries," he said.
"We're [even] in a better position than a very wealthy country like Singapore, which has lots of finance and great governance systems, but just doesn't have the land base that is needed to generate lots of renewable electricity."
